The migration waves of
Byzantine Greek
scholars and emigres in the period following the
end of the Byzantine Empire
in 1453 is considered by many scholars key to the revival of
Greek
studies that led to the development of the
Renaissance humanism
and
science
. These emigres brought to Western Europe the relatively well-preserved remnants and accumulated knowledge of their own (Greek) civilization, which had mostly not survived the Early Middle Ages in the West. The
Encyclopædia Britannica
claims: "Many modern scholars also agree that the exodus of Greeks to Italy as a result of this event marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance",
[5]
although few scholars date the start of the
Italian Renaissance
this late.
History
[
edit
]
The main role of Byzantine scholars within
Renaissance humanism
was the teaching of the
Greek language
to their western counterparts in universities or privately together with the spread of ancient texts. Their forerunners were
Barlaam of Calabria
(Bernardo Massari) and
Leonzio Pilato
, two translators who were both born in Calabria in southern Italy and who were both educated in the Greek language. The impact of these two scholars on the humanists was indisputable.
[6]
By 1500 there was a Greek-speaking community of about 5,000 in
Venice
. The Venetians also ruled
Crete
,
Dalmatia
, and scattered islands and port cities of the former empire, the populations of which were augmented by refugees from other Byzantine provinces who preferred Venetian to Ottoman governance.
[
citation needed
]
Crete was especially notable for the
Cretan School
of
icon
-painting, which after 1453 became the most important in the Greek world.
[7]
After the peak of the
Italian Renaissance
in the first decades of the 16th century, the flow of information reversed, and Greek scholars in Italy were employed to oppose Turkish expansion into former Byzantine lands in Greece, prevent the Protestant
Reformation
spreading there and help bring the Eastern Churches back into communion with Rome.
[
citation needed
]
In 1577,
Gregory XIII
founded the
Collegio Pontificio Greco
as a college in
Rome
to receive young Greeks belonging to any nation in which the
Greek Rite
was used, and consequently for Greek refugees in
Italy
as well as the
Ruthenians
and
Malchites
of
Egypt
and
Syria
.
[
citation needed
]
The construction of the College and Church of S. Atanasio, joined by a bridge over the
Via dei Greci
, began that year.
[8]
Although ideas from
ancient Rome
already enjoyed popularity with the scholars of the 14th century and their importance to the Renaissance was undeniable, the lessons of Greek learning brought by Byzantine intellectuals changed the course of
humanism
and the Renaissance itself.
[
citation needed
]
While Greek learning affected all the subjects of the
studia humanitatis
, history and philosophy in particular were profoundly affected by the texts and ideas brought from
Byzantium
. History was changed by the re-discovery and spread of Greek historians’ writings, and this knowledge of Greek historical treatises helped the subject of history become a guide to virtuous living based on the study of past events and people. The effects of this renewed knowledge of Greek history can be seen in the writings of humanists on virtue, which was a popular topic. Specifically, these effects are shown in the examples provided from Greek antiquity that displayed virtue as well as vice
[
citation needed
]
.
The philosophy of not only
Aristotle
but also
Plato
affected the Renaissance by causing debates over man’s place in the universe, the immortality of the soul, and the ability of man to improve himself through virtue.
[
citation needed
]
The flourishing of philosophical writings in the 15th century revealed the impact of
Greek philosophy
and science on the Renaissance. The resonance of these changes lasted through the centuries following the
Renaissance
not only in the writing of humanists, but also in the education and values of
Europe
and western society even to the present day.
[9]
[10]
[11]
Deno Geanakopoulos in his work on the contribution of Byzantine Greek scholars to Renaissance has summarised their input into three major shifts to Renaissance thought:
- in early 14th century
Florence
from the early, central emphasis on rhetoric to one on metaphysical philosophy by means of introducing and reinterpretation of the Platonic texts,
- in
Venice
-
Padua
by reducing the dominance of
Averroist
Aristotle
in science and philosophy by supplementing but not completely replacing it with Byzantine traditions which utilised ancient and
Byzantine commentators on Aristotle
,
- and earlier in the mid 15th century in Rome, through emphasis not on any philosophical school but through the production of more authentic and reliable versions of Greek texts relevant to all fields of humanism and science and with respect to the Greek fathers of the church. Hardly less important was their direct or indirect influence on
exegesis
of the
New Testament
itself through Cardinal
Bessarion
's inspiration of
Lorenzo Valla
's biblical emendations of the Latin
vulgate
in the light of the Greek text.
[12]
Scholars
[
edit
]
- Leo Allatius
(c. 1586 ? 1669), Rome, librarian of the
library of Vatican
- George Amiroutzes
(1400?1470), Florence, Aristotelian
- Henry Aristippus
of Calabria (1105?10 ? 1162)
- Michael Apostolius
(c. 1420 ? after 1474 or 1486), Rome
- Arsenius Apostolius
(c. 1468 ? 1538), Venice, bishop of Monemvasia
- John Argyropoulos
(c. 1415 ? 1487), Universities of Florence, Rome
- Simon Atumano
(14th century), Bishop of Gerace in Calabria
- Bessarion
(1403?1472), Catholic cardinal
- Barlaam of Seminara
(c. 1290?1348), he taught
Petrarch
some rudiments of Greek language
- Zacharias Calliergi
(fl. 1499?1515), Rome
- Laonicus Chalcocondyles
(c. 1430 ? c. 1470), historian, Athens
- Demetrius Chalcondyles
(1423?1511), Padua, Florence, Milan
- Theofilos Chalcocondylis
, Florence
- Manuel Chrysoloras
(c. 1355 ? 1415), Florence, Pavia, Rome, Venice, Milan
- John Chrysoloras
, scholar and diplomat: relative of
Manuel Chrysoloras
, patron of
Francesco Filelfo
- Andronicus Contoblacas
, Basel, teacher of
Johann Reuchlin
- Johannes Crastonis
(d. after 1497), Modena, Greek-Latin dictionary
- Andronicus Callistus
(1400 ? c. 1476), Rome, Bologna, Florence, Paris, cousin of Theodorus Gaza
- Demetrius Cydones
(1324?1398),
Mesazon
of the Byzantine Empire
- Mathew Devaris
(fl. 1552?1550), Rome
- Demetrios Ducas
(с. 1480 ? c. 1527), Spain
- Elia del Medigo
(c. 1458 ? c. 1493), Venice, Rome, Padua, Jewish philosopher
- Antonios Eparchos
(1491?1571), Venice, scholar and poet
- Antonio de Ferraris
(c. 1444 ? 1517), academic, doctor and humanist
- Theodorus Gaza
(c. 1398 ? c. 1475), first dean of the University of Ferrara, Naples and Rome
- George Gemistos Plethon
(c. 1355/1360 ? 1452/54), teacher of
Bessarion
- George of Trebizond
(1395?1486), Venice, Florence, Rome
- George Hermonymus
(before 1435 ? after 1503),
University of Paris
, teacher of
Erasmus
,
Reuchlin
,
Budaeus
and
Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples
- Georgios Kalafatis
(ca. 1652 ? ca. 1720), Greek professor of theoretical and practical medicine
[13]
- Andreas Musalus
(ca. 1665/6 ? ca. 1721), Greek professor of mathematics, philosopher and architectural theorist
[14]
- Nicholas Kalliakis
(Nicolai Calliachius) (1645?1707), a
Greek
scholar and philosopher who flourished in Italy.
[15]
- Mathaeos Kamariotis
(d. 1490), Constantinople
- Isidore of Kiev
(1385?1463)
- Ioannis Kigalas
(ca. 1622 ? 1687), Greek scholar and professor of Philosophy and Logic
[16]
- Ioannis Kottounios
(c. 1577 ? 1658), Padua
- Konstantinos Kallokratos
(b. 1589), Calabria
- Constantine Lascaris
(1434?1501),
University of Messina
- Janus Lascaris
or
Rhyndacenus
(c. 1445 ? 1535), Rome
- Leonard of Chios
(c. 1395/96 ? c. 1458), Greek-born Roman Catholic prelate
- Nikolaos Loukanis
(16th century), Venice
- Maximus the Greek
(c. 1475 ? 1556) studied in Italy before moving to Russia
- Maximos Margunios
(1549?1602), Venice
- Marcus Musurus
(c. 1470 ? 1517), University of Padua
- Michael Tarchaniota Marullus
(с. 1458 ? 1500), Ancona and Florence, friend and pupil of
Jovianus Pontanus
- Leonardos Philaras
(1595?1673), an early advocate for
Greek independence
[17]
- Maximus Planudes
(c. 1260 ? c. 1305), Rome, Venice, anthologist, mathematician, grammarian, theologian
- Franciscus Portus
(1511?1581), Venice, Ferrara, Geneva
- John Servopoulos
(fl. 1484?1500), scholar, professor, Oxford
- Nikolaos Sophianos
(c. 1500 ? after 1551), Rome, Venice: scholar and geographer, creator of the
Totius Graeciae Descriptio
- Nicholas Leonicus Thomaeus
(1456?1531), Venice, Padua
- Iakovos Trivolis
(d. 1547), Venice
- Gregory Tifernas
(1414?1462), Paris, teacher of
Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples
and
Robert Gaguin
- Gerasimos Vlachos
(1607?1685), Venice
- Francesco Maurolico
(1494?1575), mathematician and astronomer from Sicily
Painting and music
[
edit
]
- Marco Basaiti
(c. 1470 ? c. 1530), painter, Venice
- Belisario Corenzio
(c. 1558?1643), painter, Napoli
- Michael Damaskenos
(1530/35?1592/93), Venice, Cretan painter
- Georgios Klontzas
(1535-1608) Cretan painter
- Thomas Flanginis
(1578?1648), Venice, funded the establishment of the
Flanginian Greek school
for teachers
- El Greco
(1541?1614), the nickname for the Cretan painter Dominikos Theotokopoulos,
Italy
,
Spain
- Francisco Leontaritis
(1518 ? c. 1572), Italy, Bavaria: singer and composer
- Anna Notaras
(d. 1507), Venice, first Greek printing press
- Angelos Pitzamanos
(1467?1535),
Cretan
painter,
Otranto
,
Southern Italy
[18]
- Janus Plousiadenos
(c. 1429 ? c. 1500), Venice, hymnographer and composer
- Theodore Poulakis
(1622?1692), Venice, painter
- Emmanuel Tzanes
(1610?1690), Venice, Cretan painter
- John Rhosos
(d. 1498), Rome, Venice well-known scribe
- Antonio Vassilacchi
(1556?1629), painter from
Milos
worked in
Venice
with
Paolo Veronese
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Beckett, William a (1834).
A universal biography: including scriptural, classical and mythological memoirs, together with accounts of many eminent living characters, Volume 1
. Mayhew, Isaac and Co. p.
730
.
OCLC
15617538
.
CHALCONDYLES (DEMETRIUS), a learned modern Greek, and a native of Athens, came over into Italy about 1447, and after a short abode at Rome
- ^
Beze, Theodore de; Summers, Kirk M. (2001).
A view from the Palatine: the Iuvenilia of Theodore de Beze
. Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. p. 442.
ISBN
9780866982795
.
Demetrius Chalcondyles (1423-1511), a Greek refugee who taught Greek at Perugia, Padua, Florence, and Milan. Around 1493 he produced a Greek textbook for beginners.
- ^
Rabil, Albert (1991).
Knowledge, goodness, and power: the debate over nobility among quattrocento Italian humanists
. Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. p. 197.
ISBN
978-0-86698-100-2
.
John Argyropoulos (ca. 1415-87) played a prominent role in the revival of Greek philosophy in Italy. He came to Italy permanently in 1457 and held
- ^
Bunson, Matthew (2004).
OSV's encyclopedia of Catholic history
. Our Sunday Visitor Publishing. p. 141.
ISBN
978-1-59276-026-8
.
BESSARION, JOHN (c. 1395-1472) + Greek scholar, cardinal, and statesman. One of the foremost figures in the rise of the intellectual Renaissance in the
- ^
"Fall of Constantinople"
. Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^
The Italian renaissance in its historical background, Denis Hay Cambridge University Press 1976
- ^
Maria Constantoudaki-Kitromilides in
From Byzantium to El Greco
,p.51-2, Athens 1987, Byzantine Museum of Arts
- ^
De Meester, "Le College Pontifical Grec de Rome", Rome, 1910
- ^
Constantinople and the West by Deno John Geanakopulos- Italian Renaissance and thought and the role of Byzantine emigres scholars in Florence, Rome and Venice: A reassessment University of Wisconsin Press, 1989
- ^
From Byzantium to Italy: Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance. by N. G. Wilson The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Autumn, 1994), pp. 743-744
- ^
Eight philosophers of the Italian Renaissance, Paul Oskar Kristeller, Stanford University Press,1964
- ^
Constantinople and the West by Deno John Geanakopulos- Italian Renaissance and thought and the role of Byzantine emigres scholars in Florence,
Rome
and
Venice
: A reassessment University of Wisconsin Press, 1989
- ^
Boehm, Eric H. (1995).
Historical abstracts: Modern history abstracts, 1450-1914, Volume 46, Issues 3-4
. American Bibliographical Center of ABC-Clio. p. 755.
OCLC
701679973
.
Between the 15th and 19th centuries the University of Padua attracted a great number of Greek students who wanted to study medicine. They came not only from Venetian dominions (where the percentage reaches 97% of the students of Italian universities) but also from Turkish-occupied territories of Greece. Several professors of the School of Medicine and Philosophy were Greeks, including Giovanni Cottunio, Niccolo Calliachi, Giorgio Calafatti...
- ^
Convegno internazionale nuove idee e nuova arte nell '700 italiano, Roma, 19-23 maggio 1975
. Accademia nazionale dei Lincei. 1977. p. 429.
OCLC
4666566
.
Nicolo Duodo riuniva alcuni pensatori ai quali Andrea Musalo, oriundo greco, professore di matematica e dilettante di architettura chiariva le nuove idee nella storia dell'arte.
- ^
Feller, Francois-Xavier de (1782).
Dictionnaire historique, Volume 2
. Mathieu Rieger fils. p. 18.
OCLC
310948713
.
CALLIACHI, (Nicolas) grec de Candie, y naquit en 1645. Il profefla les belles
- ^
Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Institut fur Griechisch-Romische Altertumskunde, Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Zentralinstitut fur Alte Geschichte und Archaologie (1956).
Berliner byzantinistische Arbeiten, Volume 40
. Akademie-Verlag. pp. 209?210.
John Cigala (born at Nicosia 1622). He studied at the College of Saint Athanasios, Rome (1635?1642), which he graduated as Doctor of Philosophy and Theology and at which he taught Greek successfully for eight years (1642?1650). From Rome he moved to Venice, where he practised law for a short time, therefore he may have also studied law. ? In 1666 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy and Logic at the University of Padova. In 1678 he was appointed Professor to the second chair of Philosophy of the same University and in 1687 (214) to the first. From some time before 1678 he had also been censor of the books published by the S. Ufficio, Venice, which presupposed his Catholic loyalty, actually praised by D' Alviani. His Greek and theological wisdom, his modesty, piety and other humane virtues are praised by Petin, Nicholas Bouboulios and D' Alviani. In 1685 he appears as bestman at the marriage of Antonia daughter of Const. Tzane the Cretan painter to Mario Botza. Some of his epigrams have survived published in books of other scholars. Because of his duties as censor he seems to have lived in Venice from time to time. He died on the 5/11/1687.
- ^
Merry, Bruce (2004).
Encyclopedia of modern Greek literature
. Greenwood Publishing Group. p.
442
.
ISBN
978-0-313-30813-0
.
Leonardos Filaras (1595?1673) devoted much of his career to coaxing Western European intellectuals to support Greek liberation. Two letters from Milton (1608?1674) attest Filaras's ptriiotic crusade.
- ^
Nano Chatzidakis:
The character of the Velimezis Collection
Sources
[
edit
]
- Deno J. Geanakoplos,
Byzantine East and Latin West: Two worlds of Christendom in Middle Ages and renaissance
. The Academy Library Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1966.
- Deno J. Geanakoplos, (1958)
A Byzantine looks at the renaissance
, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 1 (2);pp:157-62.
- Jonathan Harris,
Greek Emigres in the West, 1400-1520
, Camberley: Porphyrogenitus, 1995.
- Louise Ropes Loomis (1908)
The Greek Renaissance in Italy
The American Historical Review, 13(2);pp:246-258.
- John Monfasani
Byzantine Scholars in Renaissance Italy: Cardinal Bessarion and Other Emigres
: Selected Essays, Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, 1995.
- Steven Runciman,
The fall of Constantinople, 1453
. Cambridge University press, Cambridge 1965.
- Fotis Vassileiou & Barbara Saribalidou,
Short Biographical Lexicon of Byzantine Academics Immigrants to Western Europe
, 2007.
- Dimitri Tselos (1956)
A Greco-Italian School of Illuminators and Fresco Painters: Its Relation to the Principal Reims
- Nigel G. Wilson.
From Byzantium to Italy: Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
External links
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]
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